Don't Find A Niche, Find A Mode

Finding this sort of internal power is an individual art to master and probably will not be clear when you first start creating online. When people start putting themselves out there fully, they are at peak uncertainty and crave a roadmap. As I like to say, don’t find a niche, find a mode or a state you can keep showing up in.

The problem with niche strategy, in a nutshell, is that it's a reliable destroyer of the human spirit. It's built on the assumption that we can segment ourselves, and turn one static aspect of the self into an economic engine that makes the rest of our life feel how we wish it'd feel. It's a nice idea in theory, but after everything I've experience

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Instead of trying to build an audience...

Build an association with a specific word or idea.

• James Clear: Habits

• Dan Runcie: Business x Hip Hop

• Codie Sanchez: Boring businesses

• Nick Huber: Sweaty startups

• David Perell: Personal Monopoly

• Wes Kao: Spiky Point Of View

When you are associated with a specific word, phrase, idea, or movement, that co... See more

establishing your own personal constraints early on — and codifying those constraints in the tools that you choose to get started with — becomes the earliest seed of originality in what might become an incredibly fruitful hobby or path to skill development.

Most lists of tips you can find about growing a publication or micro-media and finding “1000 true fans” will say at some point “find your niche,” “you need a niche,” “it’s important to know what your niche is,” or some variation. Which seems to lead to a similar conclusion as generalists: that more and more people value a multi-domain “hyphenated” ... See more

So in this post I’m going to reject the commonly accepted wisdom and look at why specializing is hard, why it fails and what an alternative path looks like. The answer lies in developing strong opinions and a distinctive vibe.

When the path we’re on isn’t working, the solution isn’t necessarily to find some new slab of concrete to jump to. But rather look at where we want to go and start walking. Someone else’s system or routine might work for getting them where they want to go, but it’s unlikely you’re headed in the exact same direction.